Creekside Gahanna encompasses of property along Gahanna's Big Walnut Creek. The development features 71 luxury condominiums, of commercial space in three separate buildings, and amenities designed to incorporate the area's natural landscape. Current retail businesses include Nostalgia Brewing Company, Cold Stone Creamery, and Local Cantina, Barrel and Boar, Creekside Conference and Event Center, Golden Nail and Salon, and others. Other significant business tenants include, Bird-Houk Collaborative, C-Suites Executive Offices, Fourth Floor Interactive, Gahanna Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Metropolitan Emergency Communications Center, a 911 dispatch center which handles fire and EMS requests for Gahanna and other portions of eastern Franklin County as well as part of Fairfield County.
History
In 2003, the city of Gahanna issued a request for proposals for the redevelopment of a large tract of city-owned land in the center of Mill Street's north-south span. The RFP required the developer was to accommodate vehicles with ample parking without detracting from the evolving urban and pedestrian atmosphere in the area. The city’s request also emphasized its desire for a true mixed-use development, with all uses taking advantage of views of the adjacent Big Walnut Creek. The Stonehenge Company, then of New Albany, Ohio and later of Gahanna, partnered with the professional architecture and planning firm Bird-Houk Collaborative to propose a multi-story development with first-floor retail facing Mill Street and what would become Creekside Park. Upper levels would contain office space and residential condominium units. Public parking would be hidden in an underground garage with parking for the condominium residents provided inside the “wraparound” residential building. Approximately 389 new public parking spaces would be created. The city expressed its initial commitment to the broad concept, selected Stonehenge as the developer, and then entered more than 18 months of discussions with Stonehenge and the Community Improvement Corporation. The process involved the public in a series of public forums for the project and passed through several city boards and commissions. Groundbreaking occurred began in May 2005 and the development celebrated its official grand opening on May 1, 2008. The Creekside development project was forced into foreclosure in early 2011 when Huntington Bank filed a suit against Stonehenge and its project owner affiliate, claiming that they defaulted on over $30 million in loans. Approximately one year later, the Creekside development was purchased by Michigan-based Strathmore Development Company for $10.5 million.
Construction timeline
;Spring 2005
Demolition of existing structures
;Summer 2005
Site Excavation
Construction of underground garage
;Fall 2005
Construction of garage cap
;Winter 2005
Completion of architectural & engineering plans
Construction of buildings shells
;Spring 2006
Construction of above ground garage
;Winter 2006
Construction of Creekside Park
Construction of public plazas
;Winter 2007
Project completion
;Spring 2008
Grand opening
;Spring 2011
Property into receivership
;Summer 2012
Project out of receivership and sold
Creekside facts
According to city officials, the Creekside revitalization project was inspired by the San Antonio River Walk project.
The development features an elaborate water wall, a lagoon supported by imported natural limestone, two waterfalls, a performance stage, and public plazas and parks.
The natural stone wall in the center of the development uses large pieces of natural limestone to create walls defining the public plazas of the project. Each stone—weighing between 15,000 and 32,000 pounds—was shaped by hand on-site in order to create an interlocking wall system holding the natural earth below the upper plazas and accentuating the elevation variations of the project site. The walls use more than one million pounds of limestone from throughout Ohio, Indiana, and Kansas.
